Following on from Dunc's post,if we were around at our peak of fitness in the Musclecar era,then what would we be into?...i suspect we would not care for the new muscle cars and we would be into 30s40s 50s Classics? or Rods?
Or would we be one of the thousands that liked to go to the track to race and improve the performance of our stock 60s cars?
What would the petrol heads of the Musclecar era be into????
Think i have answered my own question,but what do you think?
What Would We ??/
Moderator: Moderators
Or a good old fashioned English rod... Ford Pop. 
I was a teenager in the muscle car era, I was into gassers and those new fangled pro stocks (no change there then). A lot of the guys that built their own cars back then were very much against muscle cars, they used the same arguements you hear about the ricers these days. They didn't like the idea that some know nothing kid could walk into a showroom, slap down daddies cash and drive out in a factory built hot rod. I could't see the arguement, even if the factory had done some of the work for you, you'd still need to have at it to get it to really perform. I was never much into the rods and the Kustoms, it had to look like it belonged on the strip to get my attention.
“It’s good enough for Nancy”
I think nostalgia is a big seller. Im sure alot of us like our cars because we remember them as youngsters. My Dad has fond memories of early stuff like Austin 7s whereas the 70s is too modern for him as he drove that sort of stuff every day.
No doubt the future will see the Subaru Imprezas and Nissan Micras at classic car shows.
Look at the number of "future classics" around now, and the price that is paid for decent early seventies Fords, and even eighties stuff now.
Its the cars we remember as kids that we are now in a position to afford IMHO.
So back in the seventies if I was older then I would probably be running something old Rootes group with Holbay power, whilst looking in the showroom window at Valiant Chargers at warwick Wright.
No doubt the future will see the Subaru Imprezas and Nissan Micras at classic car shows.
Look at the number of "future classics" around now, and the price that is paid for decent early seventies Fords, and even eighties stuff now.
Its the cars we remember as kids that we are now in a position to afford IMHO.
So back in the seventies if I was older then I would probably be running something old Rootes group with Holbay power, whilst looking in the showroom window at Valiant Chargers at warwick Wright.
Matt Hollingsworth - Vehicle Registrar
Panther Pink 73 Aussie Charger 265 Hemi 4 spd
Challenger Sam Posey Tribute car
Panther Pink 73 Aussie Charger 265 Hemi 4 spd
Challenger Sam Posey Tribute car
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TYREMAN
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Anonymous
You mean the old farts, Tony ? 
Or, alternatively, the ones who have been farfing around with old Yank cars since long before it became 'trendy' and a 'lifestyle statement' ...
You have to remember that brand loyalty, when it comes to muscle cars, is a modern re-invention of history.
Pontiac invented the big block musclecar (the GTO) and dominated the big block market through the sixties by sales. Chevrolet dominated the market by price (the Chevelle SS) and Ford dominated the market they created with the Mustang.
No ammount of blather and bluster will convince me that Chrysler were anything other than also-rans all through the sixties, with the notable exception of the 1968 Plymouth RoadRunner which was genuinely innovative and hugely successful. The 1968 Charger gets the nod by being cleverly styled.
Remember as well that the hemi was a very expensive option for any MoPar car in the sixties, so it was either bought by the hardcore street/track racer, or the wealthy. One had the ability to work on it and keep it in tune and the other had the wealth to allow the dealership to keep it in tune.
The other thing that always amazes me is the sheer number of low mileage 'survivor' cars that turn up in magazines. Again, this is proof to me that, really, the old muscle cars were 'hard drives'. Noisy, relatively uncompromising in refinement, lacking in brakes and steering sophistication (even in straight line America), poorly built, leaky (both into and out of), an awful lot of them were just not pleasant to drive at all, and hence their lives were spent hacking about in short drives around close neighbourhoods. Hence their amazingly low mileages for their age.
You very rarely see a muscle car that has a genuine over 100,000 or over 200,000 miles on it. What you will see is 'muscular cars' that have that sort of mileage ... I am talking 340 Barracuda's, or 351 Mustangs, or 383 Chargers, but not hemi's, or six packs, or LS6's, or Ram Air IV's or Stage1's.
They were just too 'difficult' to drive.
What you will probably find is that folk in the UK, back in the seventies and eighties, drove their old classic muscle cars, further and harder than the Yanks ever did in the equivalent decades.
Or, alternatively, the ones who have been farfing around with old Yank cars since long before it became 'trendy' and a 'lifestyle statement' ...
You have to remember that brand loyalty, when it comes to muscle cars, is a modern re-invention of history.
Pontiac invented the big block musclecar (the GTO) and dominated the big block market through the sixties by sales. Chevrolet dominated the market by price (the Chevelle SS) and Ford dominated the market they created with the Mustang.
No ammount of blather and bluster will convince me that Chrysler were anything other than also-rans all through the sixties, with the notable exception of the 1968 Plymouth RoadRunner which was genuinely innovative and hugely successful. The 1968 Charger gets the nod by being cleverly styled.
Remember as well that the hemi was a very expensive option for any MoPar car in the sixties, so it was either bought by the hardcore street/track racer, or the wealthy. One had the ability to work on it and keep it in tune and the other had the wealth to allow the dealership to keep it in tune.
The other thing that always amazes me is the sheer number of low mileage 'survivor' cars that turn up in magazines. Again, this is proof to me that, really, the old muscle cars were 'hard drives'. Noisy, relatively uncompromising in refinement, lacking in brakes and steering sophistication (even in straight line America), poorly built, leaky (both into and out of), an awful lot of them were just not pleasant to drive at all, and hence their lives were spent hacking about in short drives around close neighbourhoods. Hence their amazingly low mileages for their age.
You very rarely see a muscle car that has a genuine over 100,000 or over 200,000 miles on it. What you will see is 'muscular cars' that have that sort of mileage ... I am talking 340 Barracuda's, or 351 Mustangs, or 383 Chargers, but not hemi's, or six packs, or LS6's, or Ram Air IV's or Stage1's.
They were just too 'difficult' to drive.
What you will probably find is that folk in the UK, back in the seventies and eighties, drove their old classic muscle cars, further and harder than the Yanks ever did in the equivalent decades.
Last edited by Anonymous on Wed Mar 11, 09 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Who are you calling an old fart, Sandy?
In my experience some cars were really cheap, others were way out of my reach, I couldn't afford a B Body Mopar at the time, only a wrecked one, which I broke up for the running gear, I think that 440 Charger was 300 quid and I got it before it got down to Cookies scrapyard in West Drayton!
More affordable was the 1964 Chevrolet Impala, which came from the sale at the airbase at Ruislip, it was small block powered, but still lots of fun. It had a CB radio in it (a 23 channel Midland, for you anoraks) and after finding the mike in the glove box and clipping it to the front of the radio I tried desperately to contact someone, with pleas such as hello? anybody out there?
Somehow I received a reply from a trucker who said he was in America, but I couldn't understand his banter with all this "what's yer 20" and "come back" stuff, then I lost him.
I chopped about four foot off tyhe nine foot spring mounted aerial attached to the back bumper, because it kept hitting things and the CB radio was never the same again...
I bought a Buick Skylark with the ally 200 horse V8 and two speed "turbine drive" transmission in metallic gold with a metallic gold and white interior, this was my ultimate muscle car at the time, sounded the biz and went quite well, but even though it was less than ten years old it was rusty to the point it would never get another MOT.
I used to cruise about at night through Harrow, with all the windows down (it was a pillarless two dour coupe, of course) even when it was raining, sitting really low in the seat and leaning back, with a fag on, listening to the rumble of the V8 through the knackered exhausts thinking I was mister cool.
That baby cost me 180 quid.
In my experience some cars were really cheap, others were way out of my reach, I couldn't afford a B Body Mopar at the time, only a wrecked one, which I broke up for the running gear, I think that 440 Charger was 300 quid and I got it before it got down to Cookies scrapyard in West Drayton!
More affordable was the 1964 Chevrolet Impala, which came from the sale at the airbase at Ruislip, it was small block powered, but still lots of fun. It had a CB radio in it (a 23 channel Midland, for you anoraks) and after finding the mike in the glove box and clipping it to the front of the radio I tried desperately to contact someone, with pleas such as hello? anybody out there?
Somehow I received a reply from a trucker who said he was in America, but I couldn't understand his banter with all this "what's yer 20" and "come back" stuff, then I lost him.
I chopped about four foot off tyhe nine foot spring mounted aerial attached to the back bumper, because it kept hitting things and the CB radio was never the same again...
I bought a Buick Skylark with the ally 200 horse V8 and two speed "turbine drive" transmission in metallic gold with a metallic gold and white interior, this was my ultimate muscle car at the time, sounded the biz and went quite well, but even though it was less than ten years old it was rusty to the point it would never get another MOT.
I used to cruise about at night through Harrow, with all the windows down (it was a pillarless two dour coupe, of course) even when it was raining, sitting really low in the seat and leaning back, with a fag on, listening to the rumble of the V8 through the knackered exhausts thinking I was mister cool.
That baby cost me 180 quid.
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Anonymous
I really did love that Buick Sandy! If it wasn't so rusty I would have kept it for longer, but in the end it got broken up for parts...I still have the log book for it!
Let's bore you all to death with the 60 quid GTO story...it was the usual story, we were down the pub and a friend of a friend came over and said to me and my pal, "you blokes like the old Yank stuff, my mate has been thrown out of his digs, he's got no money and needs to get rid of his old Pontiac before the weekend or the landlord is gonna have it towed away.
We were around there like a shot to find it was GTO with the 400 cubic inch engine (sadly not a Judge, no such luck, even in those days!) we took a battery with us and tried to start it but it didn't want to know coughing and banging through the carb and the owner was looking quite uneasy as he owned up that he hadn;'t been able to start it for weeks since he put new plugs in it.
We knew what was wrong, when the guy agreed to the ludicrously low price as it was a non runner (it was knocked about a bit, but was otherwise identical to the one in the pic below, so was super cheap) we swapped the leads over to the correct firing order and I was laying rubber all the way home!
Let's bore you all to death with the 60 quid GTO story...it was the usual story, we were down the pub and a friend of a friend came over and said to me and my pal, "you blokes like the old Yank stuff, my mate has been thrown out of his digs, he's got no money and needs to get rid of his old Pontiac before the weekend or the landlord is gonna have it towed away.
We were around there like a shot to find it was GTO with the 400 cubic inch engine (sadly not a Judge, no such luck, even in those days!) we took a battery with us and tried to start it but it didn't want to know coughing and banging through the carb and the owner was looking quite uneasy as he owned up that he hadn;'t been able to start it for weeks since he put new plugs in it.
We knew what was wrong, when the guy agreed to the ludicrously low price as it was a non runner (it was knocked about a bit, but was otherwise identical to the one in the pic below, so was super cheap) we swapped the leads over to the correct firing order and I was laying rubber all the way home!
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Anonymous
